Answers Bible Curriculum Second Edition Unit 3 Lesson 22
This week in Sunday school, we examine more of the aftermath of the Fall, this time looking at what happened to Adam and Eve’s first children. Why was Cain’s sacrifice rejected and Abel’s accepted? How does Cain’s murderous response to Abel and callous response to God illustrate the true nature of sinful anger? And how are God’s mercy and saving gospel put on display even in this evil episode? Join us as we look into these important questions and more!
Our text for our lesson is Genesis 4:1-17.
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there we go I can hear now excellent well let’s begin then good morning welcome to Sunday School where we spent the last two weeks looking at a very good very critical piece of our history of the Earth’s history of the universe history and that is corruption about 6,000 years here the first two humans Adam and Eve they changed their minds about God as to whether God is really good holy worthy of total worship they thus exalted themselves rebelled and ate their forbidden fruit this was the fall and the original sin last week we more specifically examined the effects of the fall man in his world were comprehensively cursed yet God also showed mercy and even promised a saving seed to come in the midst of those curses now these effects the fall word inaugurated immediately even if some of their effects would only be appreciated later but in today’s lesson we’re going to see a dramatic example of some of those effects we’re going to see just how much man changed as a result of the fall the title today’s lesson is Cain kills Abel though this account’s is another one of the great tragedies of history it’s also another clear display of the goodness of God in examining this historical episode we will see just as Israel did originally more about who we are as sinners in desperate need of God and more about who God is as the holy but merciful Savior here’s our agenda for today’s class we’re going to first observe our passage Genesis 4:1 to 15 will focus in on some interpretation questions especially why did Cain get angry and why was this sacrifice rejected and then finally we’ll discuss an important apologetic question where did Cain get his wife let’s pray now before we go on but God we come before you God and we acknowledge again our dependence on you we are thankful for your word but we need your spirit to help us understand it help us appreciate it as it as we ought to and help us to apply it into our lives alright I pray that you it helped me to be able to explain your word now and help us to be able to comprehend it as we ought but I pray that we would see your great holiness our sinfulness but also your great goodness as we look at this passage Jesus name Amen let’s start by turning to and reading the account of Cain and Abel and Genesis forth so take your Bibles from Genesis 4 and we’ll just read verses 1 to 15 Genesis 4:1 to 15 follow along with me as I start reading in verse 1 now the man had relations with his wife eat and she conceived and gave birth to Cain and she said I have gotten a man-child with the help of the Lord that is Yahweh again she gave birth to his brother Abel in Abel was to keep her flocks but Cain was a tiller of the ground so came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to Yahweh of the fruit of the ground Abel and his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions and Yahweh had regard for Abel and for his offering but for came for his offering he had no regard so came became very angry and his countenance fell and Yahweh said to Cain why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen if you do well well not your countenance be lifted up and if you do not do well sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you but you must master it Cain told Abel his brother and it came about when they were in the field a Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him then Yahweh said to Cain where is Abel your brother and he said I do not know am I my brother’s keeper he said what have you done the voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand when you cultivate the ground it will no longer yield its strength to you you will be a vagrant and wanderer and a wanderer on the earth Cain said to Yahweh my punishment is too great to bear behold you have driven me this day from the face of the ground and from your face I will be hidden and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth and whoever finds me will kill me so he always said to him therefore whoever kills Cain vengeance will be taken on him Sevenfold and Yahweh appointed a sign for King sent no one finding him would slay it a familiar story but let’s come at it again with fresh eyes starting with basic observations notice that these events take place right after Adam and Eve are cursed and driven from the garden for their sin and notice what great happening takes place in verse 1 a son is born to Adam and Eve this is wonderful the human race will continue it’s just as God said gods kept this promise they have a son and who is this first board his name is Cain the name Cain sounds like the Hebrew word for acquired or gotten the sieve says I have gotten a man-child with the help the are way notice that Eve soon has another son diversity Abel the name Abel is just like the Hebrew word for wrath or vanity if you know Ecclesiastes and that famous phrase from the book vanity of vanities all is vanity it’s actually the same word as a bull’s name breath vanity now considering what happens in our account that name Abel will prove sadly appropriate notice that each son takes up an occupation in verse 2 Cain becomes a farmer Abel becomes a shepherd and notice each son brings an offering to God in verses 3 to 4 Cain brings an offering of the fruit of the ground what’s the fruit of the ground we’re just talking crops plants fruits and vegetables he brings this to God meanwhile Abel brings firstlings from the flock including their fat portions firstlings that would be the first point animals the fat portions that’d be a particular part of the animal and its meat notice that in verses 4 to 5 God accepts he regards Abel’s offering but he has no regard for Cain’s and how does Cain respond to this rejection verse 5 very angry and a fallen countenance now what is a fallen countenance yeah a sad face or even an angry face it’s a dejected look at Council mr. just an older word for face so he was visibly upset based on the outcome of this sacrifice he had a fallen countenance but notice that God goes after Cain after observing this and it gives Cain counsel in verses 6 to 7 God reminds Cain Cain you two could be a sect it accepted if you do right God warns Cain that sin seeks to control him and the urges came to rule over his sinful desires but how does Cain respond to God’s counsel while he ignores it because in the very next verse very next verse Cain goes and murders his brother now we don’t get any details about that we don’t know how he did it other than he spoke to his brother and went out into the field and then he killed him there God comes to Cain and verse 9 and asked Cain where his brother is and this came to responses in that same verse I don’t know which is a what oh I and then he says am I my brother’s keeper now that’s not an actual question that’s rhetorical he’s not looking for some sort of explanation from God this is sarcasm and the expected answer is no I’m not my brother’s keeper why are you asking me consider what a way to answer the God of the universe in verse 10 God reveals that he knows exactly where Abel is and what Cain has done God then punishes cane for Abel’s murder in verses 11 12 but notice not by putting Cain to death instead there are two cursors pronounced from God on Cain verse 12 Cain’s farming will now be cursed the ground would no longer yield to Cain and Cain is doomed to be a fugitive in a wanderer and notice Kane’s response to this versus 3214 notice what we do not see Kane does not confess his sin does not repent does not cry out for forgiveness but what does he do cries out that his punishment is too severe besides his farming being cursed and his being a wanderer and as he says no longer being before the face of Yahweh know specifically what came fears whoever finds him will kill him now why would someone want to kill Cain certainly would be to avenge Abel’s death would be because he’s committed this great injustice and they want to make it right now who specifically would want to avenge Abel’s death may be able zaw their family members the rest of Adams family and which humans on earth are part of Adams family all of them all of them we’re told in the end of Genesis 3 that Eve is the mother of all living so of the people on earth all of them would come from Adam and Eve they’re all part of the family and thus they’re all relatives of Abel you killed Abel why not why should we not seek vengeance on you why should we not punish you for what you did so Cain has great reason to fear because every human on earth has a good reason to kill him now to this Scott could have said tough Cain you reap what you sow but God doesn’t do that God instead puts Cain’s fears to rest with two provisions in verse 15 he promises to avenge Cain Sevenfold should he be killed and he gives Cain a distinguishing mark of divine protection now considering these verses as a whole you may have noticed that there are many parallels between this accounts and the account of the fall in Genesis chapter 3 both accounts feature sins involving a pair of people both episodes involved the destruction of another Satan of the human race Cain avaible in each account there’s a tragic choice but before that a warning from God but both warnings are disregarded Adam and came both willfully rebel against God’s commands and in both accounts God goes after the sinners by first asking questions to which God already knows the answers but to those questions neither Adam or Eve or Cain respond and confession and repentance to God’s questioning instead they avoid responsibility and shift blame in both accounts we see a curse resulting as punishment from God though there is also in both accounts special and merciful provisions from God for those who have sinned the covering with animal skins in Genesis 3 and in here the mark on Cain and in both instances the sinners are allowed to continue living with these observations let’s now turn to some interpretation questions on our passage first why does Cain kill Abel it’s just well I say Rupa will say more about that just a second certainly what we’re seeing here is jealousy passage doesn’t explicitly identify jealousy as the motive but we can infer it based on Cain’s anger and the fact that Abel sacrifice was accepted by God and Kings was not Cain was so filled with hatred toward his own brother for receiving what Cain did not receive that Cain was willing to kill him but let’s take this a step further what was at the root of Cain’s jealousy jealousy was the root of the murder what was at the root of the jealousy because consider unless we identify the root we might think that the circumstances forced came to be angry and jealous that seeing someone someone else succeed when you don’t automatically creates jealousy or provokes jealousy but that’s not it we know that no one’s forced to be jealous what was that the root of Cain’s jealousy then and really what is at the root of all sinful anger probably a few ways we can answer that question but I think the one that’s most evident from our passage is that this comes from Pride Kane’s jealousy his hateful murderous anger comes from pride consider the attitude that Kane is displaying in this passage especially with his sacrifice it’s immediately after his sacrifice is rejected that he gets angry why because his thinking is I deserve to have my sacrifice accepted I deserve success even with God I deserve to get what I want because I’m me therefore I cannot abide others succeeding and enjoying what I do not such as a terrible injustice it must be recompense with the destruction of the one getting in my way and in the way of my own exultation and fulfillment no it’s interesting one of the classes I’m in right now in seminary is advanced biblical counseling and teacher mentioned the other day a steady involving self-esteem and criminals society often posits that those who do evil those who commit crimes or bully others do so because they have a low self-esteem but in one study that actually followed up with various criminals murderers rapists etc they found that these people had actually very high self-esteem they had a very high opinion of themselves and it was actually because of that that they committed their crimes their victims were the very persons who impinged who infringed on that view that high view of themselves she makes me feel bad I’m gonna put her back in her place I’ll even kill her we’re seeing the same thing in this account and it’s even more evident in Cain’s flippant response to God’s questioning Cain treats the Creator God the Lord the holy judge like God is a nobody and a nuisance I don’t know what my brother is am I my brother’s keeper how can King speak this way is he insane does he not know who God is well no this is the effect of pride this is because King is God in his own mind thus Cain becomes angry not just against Abel but really against God sin Scott since God was not giving Cain not doing what Cain thought should be done and giving Cain what he thought he deserved now this is shocking but it’s not too foreign to us is it ask yourselves have I ever gotten angry at others when they get what I want have I been jealous and resentful of others when they succeed and I don’t have I even gotten angry at God and tried to spite him because he didn’t do what I thought he should do or didn’t give me what I wanted what I felt I needed do you realize that when you think this way feel this way act this way do you realize the reason for your anger it’s your pride you’re making yourself out to be greater than God you’ve become entitled thus you exercise a whooped sense of justice that condemns both God and others for not doing your will you see this account of Cain and Abel is another clear picture of what man is as a result of the fall we’re seeing here really the depth of man’s darkness again here a man commits murder kills his own brother just because that brother received a blessing and because that brother was more righteous than he but this same darkness is witnessed all over the Bible especially of the evil ones against the righteous consider before the flood what does God lament that the world is filled with looks upon the earth and he sees it is filled with violence people viciously attacking and hurting each other later on Esau he seeks to kill his brother Jacob over the inheritance Joseph’s 11 brothers out of jealousy they seek to put him to death Uriah a righteous soldier one of David’s own mighty men he’s murdered by his adulterous King so that king can get safely away with you Ryan White’s and Uriah had done nothing wrong of course our Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest example of this he came to save men but jealous men self-seeking men lynched the Lord for their own ends so the darkness wasn’t Justin Cain it’s been all throughout the Bible and it’s still so evident today you can’t pull up a news app or read the newspaper without seeing headline after headline of murder mass murder domestic murder men and women killing their own spouses children and other family members it’s all over the place and if we pay attention we also constantly hear the news of pastors missionaries simple Christians being arrested tortured and killed it is righteous persons who did nothing wrong being killed by those who love evil what’s wrong with us why is mankind so brutal why are we so cruel so twisted against one another well this is the horror of sin this is what we are this is what we are capable of as a result of the fall this is where we end up when we reject the goodness and holiness of God and unless mercifully restrained by God each one of us would become a cruel murderous wannabe despot just like Cain now who will rescue us from this existence from this darkness apart from this body of death we certainly need your best Euler the great wickedness Akane deserved utmost punishment if Adam and Eve deserved death for their rebellion surely Cain deserved more he killed another person a righteous person someone made in the image of God and God would set up this rule after the flood in Genesis 9 Genesis 9 7 God says whoever sheds man’s blood by man his blood shall be shed for in the image of God he made man but God doesn’t kill Cain it doesn’t call for came to be killed in fact when Cain expresses worried that someone might kill King Khan instead provides for Cain’s life and the question is why why does God protect and show mercy to King consider your parallels of Genesis 3 this actually shouldn’t be too surprising this is who God is God is merciful God is kind God is patient and again God is giving opportunity for Cain to repent this is the radical mercy of God on display again in the face of man’s sin it’s not as if God was worried about the human population being too low and therefore spared Cain they’re definitely going to be other sons and daughters from Adam and neither is it because Cain displayed a changed heart before God we noticed from Cain’s response to God’s cursing it was not confessing his sin or repenting at all now Cain is concerned over his crime to be sure but only over which part of it the punishment the consequences instead of oh god my sin is too much for your holiness to endure he says oh god this punishment is too much for me to endure Cain doesn’t see the magnitude of his sin he is filled with regret and even sorrow but not repentance his only regret is over the consequences of his sin not sin itself and of course this is what we see all around us today is it not so often man’s confessions are wrongdoing continuing no confessions at all merely regret at the outcome of the actions that this is regret and sorrow that does not save and it is an affront to our righteous creator and God have you ever expressed such shame repentance to others to God we have on the one hand here then a clear display of the radical depravity of man and of the radical kindness and mercy of God God says decane essentially though I must judge you with a curse for the sake of my own holiness I will continue to let you live and I’ll personally ensure that no man will ever avenge the crime you have committed when they see this mark on our new this mark I will place on you they will fear my judgment and they will not argue this is shocking kindness from God but that’s when the main themes of the Bible we call shocking kindness another need and that’s grace God’s grace points us here and elsewhere in the scriptures to the worthiness of God to be loved and to be sought after really we can say it this way why should you repent of your sin and seek the Lord with all your hearts because of how great God is because especially of his great patience and compassion toward you it’s just as Romans 2 verses 3 to 4 says Romans 2 verses 3 to 4 Paul says but do you suppose this o man when you pass judgment on those who practice such things that’s various kinds of sin and do the same yourself that you will escape the judgment of God or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance cuts kindness is specifically designed so that we will repent but to ignore this great kindness of God and to send even more because of it is an infinitely egregious crime before the holy one and it is why the wrath of God against the unrepentant is so unquenchable a crime upon a crime God’s patience and mercy used only to increase sin and therefore another question you must ask yourself today in light of God’s Word is do I in foolish pride use God’s patience and kindness to me as an excuse to avoid repentance I haven’t been judged yet life’s still going well I can continue in my sin that’s gotten too bad yet I’m not gonna repent yet is that your attitude or ask yourself this have I instead humbled myself before God for the great evil I have done toward him despite his kindness toward me the fact that you have done evil but God has shown you kindness that should cause you to humiliate yourself even more before God take that tax collectors perspective from the New Testament there couldn’t even look up to heaven but beat his breast and said God be merciful to me the sinner let’s now turn to 8 related and key question in our passage why was Cain’s sacrifice rejected and Abel’s sacrifice accepted before we get to that we should he even asked why do Cain and Abel know to offer sacrifices to God in the first place I mean weren’t sacrifice is something that God instituted with Moses and Israel we don’t get specific details in the Bible about how mankind first started offering sacrifices to God but it apparently was a very early concept because we see it elsewhere in the Bible in the lives of people before Moses Noah for instance offer sacrifices to God after the flood and even of what are called clean animals even though we don’t hear about clean and unclean animals until Israel and Moses much later Joe also offers sacrifices on behalf of the sins of his family to God and Jacob after leaving Laban in Genesis 30:1 offers sacrifices so this it shows us that there were certain concepts of sin cleanness and sacrifice even in the first family on earth long before Moses or Israel so God had to at some point have specifically communicated information about offering and sacrifice to man perhaps God did this in remembrance of the fall and of God’s immediate provision of covering for man and woman and perhaps this also was inaugurated in anticipation of God’s future promised to save man from the scheme of the serpent so they know somehow to offer sacrifices to God but back to our question what was wrong with Cain’s sacrifice that caused God to reject it well because we don’t know what information got it already given suit man regarding sacrifices we can’t answer this question for sure absolutely but we can come up with a probable answer we can compare the brother sacrifices as described here to what God would later say in the scriptures especially to Israel now recall that Cain offers crops through to the ground and Abel offers animal meat Cain offers apparently nothing particularly special from the part of the ground we don’t have any specific descriptors well a bur Abel offers a very specific kind of animal the first links and the specific part of that animal the fat portions the animals with their fat now an exodus of Leviticus we read that God did ordain Israel to offer both crops and animals to God as sacrifices when we think about the sacrifice to the Old Testament we often think of the more bloody animal sacrifices like sin offering and the burnt offering and those were a key and even the majority of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament but there’s also the green offering which was an offering of the fruit of the ground this was given by God and acceptable to him mophir we learned from these other books of the Torah Moses’s five books that God also called on Israel to offer to God both of the firstfruits of the ground and the firstlings of animals so though it’s often assumed that Cain’s sacrifice was rejected because it was not a bloody animal sacrifice the Israel’s own law does not support this conclusion God did accept sacrifices of the fruit of the ground later so that can’t be the reason here so we still asked what was wrong with Cain’s sacrifice but there are other portions of Scripture that would help us with this issue a key one especially is Hebrews 11:4 Hebrews 11:4 says this and this is in comment on various persons who displayed faith throughout the Old Testament by faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous God testifying about his gifts and through faith though he is dead he still speaks consider also first John 1st John chapter 3 verses 10 to 12 by this John says the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God nor the one who does not love his brother but this is the message which you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another not as Cain who was of the Evil One and slew his brother and for what reason did he slay him because his deeds are evil and his brothers were righteous we could also add a few other Old Testament text first Samuel 15:22 first Samuel 15:22 says has Yahweh as much delight and burnt offering and sacrifices as an obeying the voice of Yahweh behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed then the fat of rams Isaiah 66 fry delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice and in the knowledge of God rather than burn offerings and then proverbs 15:8 the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh but the prayer of the upright is his delight what do all these verses emphasize when it comes to sacrifices and God is it not that God is more concerned about the heart and life and the sacrifice itself God does delight in right sacrifice when it is offered from a right heart but a right sacrifice from a wrong heart gains only the disgust of God so now I think we can see why Cain’s sacrifice was rejected it’s not the fact that Saints sacrifice was of the fruit of the ground but because Cain did not truly love God or believed in him ultimately this is about Cain’s heart Cain did not seek the Lord in faith because is it not faith for which Abel is specifically praised in the book of Hebrews Abel offered his sacrifice in faith in true belief in the greatness goodness and faithfulness of God but this belief was lacking in King therefore his sacrifice even if offered rightly was to be rejected by God now perhaps Cain’s attitude actually did show up in his offering because as we observed Abel brought of the firstlings and the fat portions this would be the best parts of the animal very valuable selection but we don’t see any description like that with Cain’s offering these aren’t even necessarily the firstfruits they’re just an offering of the fruit of the ground Abel apparently purposefully sought to honor God with the sacrifice choices volcana apparently did not think highly enough of God to show the same purpose in care in his selection of offering you know this is often true of those who hold to good works when you examine them more closely you can see that their good works are not really good not only because they’re not offered in faith but because they are not often in faith they’re not done in a in a totally circumspect way you examine it more closely you say you know his you didn’t really do a good job with that because his heart was not in it so what we see here in Genesis for then is not just the first appearance of murder on the earth but it is also the first appearance of false religion because this in Cain is playing the formula that is evident in all false religions you know it’s been said by a pastor it’s been said by many there are really only two religions in the world there’s the religion of faith and there’s the religion of works there’s a religion of God’s accomplishment and there’s the religion of man’s accomplishment Cain is of the ladder he’s of the attitude that if you just offer the necessary sacrifices do the right works say the right prayers then God has to accept you God will then bless you God will give you money God will give you a good harvest God will give you kids God will give you a wife that’ll give you a long life give you salvation etc you could work for it it’s such a system you don’t have to love God at all you don’t have to believe him to be worthy of total devotion or worship it’s actually quite the opposite you see that God is one who can be satisfied with some minimal standard therefore he’s not that holy he’s not that great you can do enough to satisfy such a small God and when you do you’ll get what you want and deserve because you’re the really important one you know it’s interesting for people in such a system who is it in the world that they often hate the most those who truly know God for those who are in false religions they often hate those who actually know God because such persons expose false religions for what it is they are convicted by those who truly know God and truly love him and therefore they despise them is it any wonder that this is what we see in cane not only was cane pridefully jealous of Abel’s success but Abel’s righteous example was a living reproof of Cain’s whole false religious system his whole prideful approach to God that’s what first John 3 said right he killed him because Abel’s deeds were righteous see Cain is the epitome of all those who believe in works based salvation Cain did not truly love God he loved himself and therefore he hated the true God and all who truly belonged to God this is another thing we need to notice in Cain’s murder of Abel Adam and Eve witnessed the beginning of the fulfillment a part of God’s curse on the serpent not the arrival of the promised saving seed though I’m sure they wished for that but what they saw instead was the promised enmity that God said he would put between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent that is the godly seed and the seed of the devil the murder of Abel by Cain was just the first episode in a long history of the sons of the devil opposing the sons of God now praise God we know from God’s promise in many other scriptures that the children of God triumph in Christ in the end but the children the devil will definitely rage in the meand just as Cain did so now the question to ask again is what about you which are you are you a son of God or a son of the devil do you follow in the footsteps of faith-filled Abel or do you walk according to works based Cain do you go through the motions of sacrifice and worship as Cain did even though you deep down do not actually love God do you make yourself come here to church even Sunday school read your Bible offer the sorry prayers do acts of service also you can get God off your back or feel better about yourself or so that God can give you what you really want or is God Himself your delight can you say with the psalmist in Psalm 16 the Lord is my portion he is my inheritance and is a beautiful inheritance do you different love the Lord more than life itself are you willing ready and willing to follow in the footsteps of able even to suffer and die for the lord’s sake because he’s that worthy he’s that good do you trust in God’s promised rescuing seed Jesus Christ to do what you can never do pay off you’re innocent infinite sin debt and credit you with his own righteous life do you believe in Jesus alone to make you acceptable to God rejoicing and how God has displayed unthinkable mercy to you a great sinner and therefore do you delight in all manner of good works not to earn God’s favor but because you believe God is so worthy to be so enjoyed and worshipped friends listen today to God’s advice that he gave the King consider it his own advice to you God says if you do well if you come to me according to my way the way of faith well not your countenance be lifted up but if you do not do well if you reject my way sin is crouching at the door it’s desires for you to own you consume you and it will do so cain rejected all calls to repentance and was mastered by sin to his own destruction there’s no reason to think that k never repented even after god’s confrontation the punishment and god’s gracious provision since the new testament holds up cain as an example of evil and an inheritor of wrath but you do not need to follow in Cain’s path God calls you as he did King to turn from your sin in your own way and embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior submitting every part of your life didn’t it have you done that in summary then what does the account of Kane’s murder of Abel show us today it shows us more of the devastating horror of sin and our need for rescue from its curse it shows us more of both God’s holy justice and His grace to us who are undeserving rebels traitors to God and it shows us more of the only saving gospel which is salvation by faith in God not by self-made hypocritical works now before we close we need to address that frequent apologetic question attached any discussion Cain and Abel where did Cain get his wife if he just looked down at Genesis 4 again the two verses after our passage mentioned that Cain had relations with his wife and fathered a line of descendants weight of kink in his life well from what we discussed earlier there can only be one answer to this and what’s the answer Cain married a close relative where do you get his wife from his mom Cain’s wife was his sister niece her other close relative Genesis 3:20 identifies Eve as a mother while living and according to Genesis 1:2 the only humans on earth that God created Adam and Eve therefore the only humans that existed came from the first pair the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve would have had to have married each other for the human race to continue and we are aware that even though Cain Abel and Seth are mentioned in Genesis 3 4 and 5 Genesis 5 4 says that Adam had other sons and daughters who are not specifically mentioned in Scripture so then Cain must have taken a wife from among his own family but someone will say who a didn’t God prohibit such close marriages relations in the Old Testament how then could God have allowed such incestuous relationships with Cain and would Adams descendants know it is true that God did preclude close marriage relationships in the law of Moses but remember this prohibition did not exist at least for the Earth’s 2,000 years first 2500 years even among the patriarchs those who came in the line of Abraham before Moses and Israel we see closed marriage relationships Abraham married his half-sister Isaac married a close cousin the real question is why did God make a change to what wasn’t allowed marriage relationship because it was allowed in the beginning but then it was changed in the law of Moses why did God make this change we can’t say for sure there may be multiple reasons but we can make at least one good guess knowing the originally perfect state of creation and the discoveries of modern genetics one reason that God may have allowed close relatives to marry in the beginning was that genetic problems that would result from such a union were not present in human DNA at first today as I’m sure you know marriages of close relatives can result in dangerous genetic disorders this is because human DNA has accumulated small errors over the generations now it’s remarkable what God accomplishes in the DNA replication process indeed this is one of the wonders of creation but it’s not a perfect process at least after the fall it’s a very good copying procedure but it’s not perfect and every time our DNA copies itself very very small errors begin to accumulate you’re likely to have the same genetic errors as your close relatives so if you were to combine your DNA with a close relative it would almost certainly result in serious problems for your children however if the DNA errors that you and your spouse have are very different from one another they are much less likely to Express which means your child has a much greater chance of being healthy closer to the beginning of the human race you wouldn’t have had this issue of accumulated genetic errors since the DNA would have not have had a much chance not have had as much chance to mutate over time so God then apparently had no problem committing close marriages in the beginning it was only after those errors began to accumulate and the possibility of great harm to children resulting that God in compassion forbid men and women from Canarian close relatives that is still a gracious provision from God today we do not allow or promotes marriages of close relatives because of because of this reason and because God specifically forbid it so though this question where des can get his wife it’s used as the gotcha the Christian is to see hey see you have incest in your scriptures and you promote incest it’s not really that way there’s actually a good reason why this would be allowed in the beginning but later forbidden by God there certainly is no need to contradict Genesis and suggest a Sun to that God had a separate line of humans the God created or allowed to evolve a separate race of men and women for Cain and Anna’s descendants to marry anyways let me stop there questions about what you’ve heard today Magda so God says what the punishment is for pain and Cain repeats it but I see that he adds two pieces to it and they mean two things that he was most concerned about one that people don’t want to kill him but the second one was that he was going to you have driven me this day from the face of the ground and from your face I will be hidden so God never said that but he added that in there I’m curious what your thought is why that was yeah that’s a really good question I thought about that too I repeat your question why does Cain add and I will be hidden from your face whenever he’s talking about the punishments that God has given him I don’t know the answer what’s really interesting about that is that as you said God didn’t say that and it might not actually be true yeah Cain is suggesting that God will no longer show any goodness to King often for someone to shine his face rather let me say it this way when God’s face is said to show on someone to shine on someone that is a mark a favor that as a mark of blessing and Cain assumes that that will no longer be the case for him I’ll no longer see any blessing I’ll no longer see any goodness from you God now maybe he’s just being hyperbolic he’s saying this punishment is so great there’s basically no good in life anymore or maybe he just assumes that there could be no no possible good for him left the other possibility is it because he said specifically not that you will not show your face but I will be hidden from your face I will be hidden who’s gonna yeah the thought came to my mind that he’s suggesting that he himself could be he could hide himself from God he could go to some place where God could no longer see him which would be an error right because that’s what Adam and Eve tried to do they tried to hide from God after they committed sin but they couldn’t and certainly that has been for the error of man through all through the scriptures and even today that we think we can hide ourselves from God so I’d have to think about this more but the possibilities that occurred in my mind is this is an expression of hyperbole they saying basically there’s no good in life anymore because the punishments you put upon me this is or this is an error in his actually thinking that he’ll no longer be subjected to God’s presence that he can actually be hidden from God but it is a very intriguing statement because certainly you’re right God did not say that specifically interesting question other questions yes verse 14 Cain says whoever finds it would kill him could we assume that Adam and Eve already had more children or is he looking at the future that they will have our children because there’s an Adam and Eve the only ones left right so that’s a good question Isaiah you mentioned Cain says whoever finds me will kill let’s suggest that there’s a bunch of people on the earth rather than just Adam and Eve because Cain is the firstborn and then there’s Abel so is it just the four of them and with Abel gone there’s just Adam and Eve laughs well because the next couple of verses mentioned eight Cain’s wife the suggestion is indeed that there were other sons and daughters even at this time we actually read in verses 16 to 17 that he goes off by himself with his wife and he founds a city and he has a whole line of descendants so that does suggest that there were already more children of Adam and Eve and there would be more even after this instance I mentioned Genesis 5 for does say that Adam had other sons and daughters so this is a good example of just because the Bible didn’t say specifically at that there are other children and definitely work so yeah that’s a good question other questions yes I will be a vagrant and wanderer on the earth so it says that 14 and then 17 it says white so I always in my head 1 8 7 14 just pictured him leaving Adam and Eve and his brothers and sisters yeah good question so if he says I’m gonna be a vagrant and a wonder if God actually curses him as a figuring and a wanderer then how is it that he’s still able to have a wife found a city and have descendants doesn’t that mean he’s no longer alone that’s a good question I have to think about that a little bit more I think certainly the answer is not entirely literal it’s not that he’s literally gonna be by himself just wandering around the earth but that more figuratively he’s gonna be a fugitive he’s gonna be someone who is not gonna be at rest he’s gonna be someone who certainly is going to be rejected by the earth itself as he says the earth is no longer gonna yield its fruit to you so in a sense it’s like he doesn’t have a place on the earth anymore now he literally still exists on the earth and he can still live on the earth and he still as a family but there’s something about his lifestyle going forward that’s gonna be like a wanderer and a fugitive that’s my thinking on that right now yeah Duane it speaks about some verse 25 it said that Adam had relations with his wife again and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth where she said God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel for Cain killed Abel I guess I kind of always thought that Seth was the third child but because they said that having relations with his wife again I don’t want something the next time after Cain killed Abel but if Abel I mean if Cain kind of wife then obviously it seems as though right yeah that’s a good observation Twain I’ll just repeat what you said briefly that in Genesis 425 what Seth birth Eve does say this is given by God as a replacement for Abel who was killed and so this takes place after Kane’s murder I think you’re right and from what we already said that hurricane to have a wife there had to have been already other children from Adam and Eve and it’s possible he already had other sons and this is merely Eve speaking of a replacement for Abel it is also possible that he only had other daughters at this point and that’s why Cain has his has his wife and that this is the this is another son or even that this is the third son it’s possible I’m not sure that’s entirely likely I think we can’t understand that super merely as Eve saying I lost Abel but God has given me another son unnecessarily the third son it could have been but not necessarily but yeah that’s a good observation I think we have time one more question okay well do you have other questions on this passenger things related to it please email me next week we’re going to step out of Genesis for a moment to take a broader biblical look at the topic that we’ve really been coming back to again and again and that is the heart of man what is man’s heart as results the fall and what is the solution to it we’re going to hear the entire biblical witness and consider our response so look forward to talking about that with you next week let’s close in prayer O Lord God when we consider these two chapters Genesis 3 Genesis 4 on the one hand God we are we feel the heaviness of sin we look at Adam and Eve’s responses to you to one another but look at Cain and what he did and how he responded to you we say that is so evil it is so wrong that is so senseless how could they do that yet God we know that is the human condition now it’s the way we all are that’s the way we all were until you saved us and now we do still have the old man with us but God we thank you that we are not we’re not caught in darkness like we were Lord where we loved sin we could not do anything else other than sin because we love sin too much we found various ways to sin even in our so-called righteous deeds they were just other forms of sin our works righteousness was sin before you but God you had mercy on us you showed us the same radical kindness that you showed anomie and even to Cain and we praise you for that God because you are God worthy of praise you are a holy God and God you have to be because that is so worthy but God you’re also so kind you are full of loving kindness it overflows in you and we thank you God that we can be those who experienced the the blessing of that God as the worship service continues today I pray that for those listening they would be caught up and thinking about how good you are and both your holiness and in your grace Lord that they would fear using your kindness as an excuse to sin and Lord instead that they would love to run to you to walk with you and to make you known so that others might be freed from the bondage of the devil and the bondage to sin that Cain was not freed but men can be freed if they will turn to you I pray that message would be on our lips God you make us bold to declare it in Jesus name Amen all right thank you all see you again next